Tony Blair has not even called Britain's general election, yet politicians from both sides of the fence say most of the plaudits during pre-campaign skirmishes must go to his Conservative opponents.
The Prime Minister is widely expected to send voters to the polls on May 5 and already Britain's political leaders are holding daily news conferences and squabbling over the airwaves.
But turning recent British political history on its head, experts and insiders say it is the Conservatives - out of power since 1997 and thrashed twice by Mr Blair at successive elections - who have been setting the agenda.
"It's early days but you have to say we are not on the front foot so far," said one Labour parliamentarian, who is defending a modest majority in his constituency.
Some opinion polls have even suggested Labour's lead over the Conservatives - impregnable for 10 years - is narrowing.
Analysts caution against reading too much into the pre-election phoney war but agree the once-mighty media machine run by Mr Blair's Labour party, so effective in 1997 and 2001, has yet to hit its stride.
"Unless something dramatic happens in the next eight weeks, Labour is heading for a third successive victory, but with a reduced majority. The Conservatives will gain seats, but not many," said Peter Kellner of pollsters YouGov.
Former Conservative minister Michael Portillo, often a critic of his party's leadership in recent years, said he had been pleasantly surprised by its slick election strategy.
He cited efforts to push out policies through the regional media, explaining how they would affect local communities around the country, as an example of a new professionalism.
Praise is going to Lynton Crosby, flown across the world to try and replicate his success in helping Australian Prime Minister John Howard to four successive election wins.
"Crosby has created a loyal and effective campaign team that is pulling in the same direction," Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Charlie Whelan said last week.
Mr Crosby, party sources say, has also sharpened up Conservative leader Michael Howard's attacks on Mr Blair.
This was Mr Howard warning Mr Blair on Sunday: "Every day from now until May 5 we are going to hold you to account for the money you've wasted, for the promises you've broken and for the contempt you've shown for the office you hold."
There have been concrete achievements too. The Conservatives have forced Mr Blair into amending his tough anti-terrorism laws, made some headway by labelling Mr Blair's immigration policy a shambles and have even scored on traditional Labour ground like healthcare.
Seizing on the case of Margaret Dixon, a 66-year-old woman who repeatedly failed to receive a promised operation through the National Health Service, Mr Howard has posed Mr Blair serious questions on public health.
"At the moment their campaign is pretty ramshackle. It seems to me that the wheels, if they haven't come off, at least are wiggling around," Conservative finance spokesman Oliver Letwin said.
The normally sure-footed Labour machine has come under fire, most notably for running nationwide adverts attacking the Conservatives, which were slammed for sailing close to anti-Semitism.
Mr Blair insists he would quit if he thought he was no longer a vote-winner for his party but the polls show his personal ratings have shrunk since the unpopular war in Iraq.
They show Britain's finance minister is now a more popular figure than his boss and many Labour party insiders are crying: "Bring back Brown".